January 24, 2003
It has been an interesting although quite hectic week. I was surprised this week, surprised by a student, something i thought was not so possible anymore after all these years of teaching. Tuesday lunch time, i went to the little restaurant / canteen / whatever you want to call it at the foot of the hill behind my office. A couple of students joined me at the table. We had a nice chat as we ate our lunches.
Then as i was about to finish, a few students from that afternoon’s class came to see me. They asked me if i could finish that afternoon’s class a little earlier which was not that unusual in itself because they often ask such things for an enormous number of reasons. This time however, when i asked, they gave me some lame excuses. So i asked a little more insistently. What they finally told me was surprising. They said they would like to finish the class earlier because that afternoon the last episode of Rosalinda was on. Rosalinda is one of these South American soap operas they are showing these days. There is Rosalinda, Yo soy Betty la fea, and a number of others. Most of these soaps are not translated but there are subtitles given in Malay.
They wanted to finish a semantics class earlier for a soap opera. That, i found very surprising. I was actually a little speechless for a moment. In this same week i received some very heavy writings from friends all over about the insanity the Bush administration is proposing and its consequences. Here is a world in distress and fearing that there will be a madness coming worse than all the other insanities it has seen before, and i have a group of students more concerned about a soap opera than anything else. I guess, life goes on.
It has been an interesting although quite hectic week. I was surprised this week, surprised by a student, something i thought was not so possible anymore after all these years of teaching. Tuesday lunch time, i went to the little restaurant / canteen / whatever you want to call it at the foot of the hill behind my office. A couple of students joined me at the table. We had a nice chat as we ate our lunches.
Then as i was about to finish, a few students from that afternoon’s class came to see me. They asked me if i could finish that afternoon’s class a little earlier which was not that unusual in itself because they often ask such things for an enormous number of reasons. This time however, when i asked, they gave me some lame excuses. So i asked a little more insistently. What they finally told me was surprising. They said they would like to finish the class earlier because that afternoon the last episode of Rosalinda was on. Rosalinda is one of these South American soap operas they are showing these days. There is Rosalinda, Yo soy Betty la fea, and a number of others. Most of these soaps are not translated but there are subtitles given in Malay.
They wanted to finish a semantics class earlier for a soap opera. That, i found very surprising. I was actually a little speechless for a moment. In this same week i received some very heavy writings from friends all over about the insanity the Bush administration is proposing and its consequences. Here is a world in distress and fearing that there will be a madness coming worse than all the other insanities it has seen before, and i have a group of students more concerned about a soap opera than anything else. I guess, life goes on.
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